Researchers for Reader's Digest left wallets with cash and an owner's address inside in public places all over the world. The idea was to see which countries had the most honest population. Turns out Mexico was the least honest, with only 2 out of 10 wallets returned. But in Norway, every single wallet came back to the researchers. Apparently even in Oslo people do the right thing (although for the test here they did leave them in the suburbs rather than the city centre).
You can read the full article.
This is more evidence to support my feeling that Norway is the nicest country on earth to live in. I still lock up my bike, though. 'Trust in Allah; but tie your camel first'.
I remember being young and imagining how it would be to be blind. To wake up one day and not be able to see any more. Or to be deaf and not to be able to hear what people were saying to me. My brother and I would ask each other, if we had to choose, would we rather be blind or rather be deaf? I don't remember what my preference was back then (obviously, neither) but I do remember suddenly imagining something even worse: think what it would be like being deaf AND blind! That always made us quiet, the idea of such a terrible fate.
I remember not long after that, my older sister Jo explaining to me that 'disabled people' as we called them then, were not necessarily 'disabled'. They are just forced to live in a world surrounded by people with one or two physical advantages over them. In a way, it's us that makes them disabled. Again I was quiet.
Later on I was at university in Harrow. We had a modern campus with ramps, lifts, signs and all that stuff. This is the paraphernalia we are all used to seeing in the UK, which has slowly become more and more visible. It's there to make the lives of this 'disabled' minority a little bit easier. It's a victory for the forces of consideration and the rights of the individual, and of course it's a very good thing. And so we can all feel good about ourselves and feel how clever we are for being so inclusive.
I was at this campus and I saw a middle-aged man with dark glasses and a stick. He must have been blind or partially-sighted. I watched him as he walked confidently alone alongside the car park, on a path surrounded by neatly-trimmed bushes. And then the cruellest thing happened: one single bramble plant was somehow, improbably but lethally, hanging out at eye-level. It was absurd to look at, sticking out like that, almost as if it was there on purpose waiting to catch someone unaware. The thorns scratched deeply across his face and he began screaming in pain, bleeding horribly. There was not much I could do to help him. The injury was cruel, but worse was the feeling that hit me, the understanding of this being one of countless injustices someone like him has to face in the course of their lives. No matter how hard we think we try, the able-bodied, sighted, hearing majority will always be ignorant of the petty miseries we are probably causing people like him.
Anyway, I'm thinking about this because of the job I've been doing this evening (and on and off for the last year), translating the contents of byggforalle.no , a website funded by the Norwegian state which is supposed to give an overview of public buildings for persons with disabilities. There are considerations being made for lighting, toilets, hearing apparatus, even colours inside and outside buildings which can make all the difference to these people. It's another job worth doing, I think.
I really should be getting on with it, then...
Top 10 things about being on holiday:
- The hammock
- Ice tea (after it’s spent about two hours in the freezer)
- Being barefoot all day
- Eating slow meals, and drinking all the beer or wine as I like
- Catching up with some of the many albums I haven’t had time to hear
- Watching the ‘free dogs’ (as Konstantine calls them)
- Doing a little bit of leisurely, obligation-free gardening work
- Washing outside in the sun with just a bucket of water
- No reminders, no appointments, no to-do lists, no deadlines.
- Actually having time to think
My least favourites things are pretty much all insects. Many of the insects here I can’t even identify- but that doesn’t stop them being vaguely threatening. Mosquitoes are annoying. There are lots of spiders. Snakes have already proven to be a problem in this part of the world (White snakes = nice, black snakes = deadly, apparently). I just saw a hornet the size of a small bird. In fact, Konstantine thought it actually was a bird, until we saw it crawl into a crack in the wooden walls of the villa. Apparently we are sharing our house with it.
We're in east Attica, Greece. We are close to the sea, an hour from Athens, and we have almost no plans at all. Next week we will head to Skiathos and maybe Skopelos, islands a few hours north of here.
I got a minor thrill today when I managed to find an open wireless signal for the first time here, by holding my laptop up in the air from the balcony. This is perfect, because it is just inconvenient enough to make sure neither of us spend longer than a couple of minutes online (simply because it hurts your arms!) and no more. But it’s good to have some kind of connection to the outside world, you know, in case we actually do meet a black snake, or the hornet decides he prefers to keep the house to himself.
Here are some more shots from the music video I am working on for Jim Protector. We are editing it soon, and it should be finished by the end of the month. It has been a colossal amount of work but I am pleased with the way it is turning out. For more pictures have a look at http://sethpiper.blogspot.com/
